Five great shopping deals in April – and some freebies

Spring seemed to take its sweet time getting here, but it has finally sprung. Spring training is over and Opening Day has come. The long winter of 2013 has finally given way to new beginnings and longer days.

Sales cycles seem to track the same way every year. If past years are any indication, retailers are anticipating your spring cleaning and shopping needs. Now that you’re preparing to switch out your winter clothes for lighter looks and clean out the garage you’ve neglected all winter, retailers await you with sales on corresponding products.

April isn’t a big month for gift-giving holidays; unless you’re a big Winston Churchill fan, in which case mark your calendar for April 9. So some of these deals may not be as exciting as other months. But educated consumers don’t crave excitement. They crave a good deal.

Our friends at Dealnewsdug through their archives from previous years to come up with predicted good deals for this month. They also noted Amazon announced last month that it would cut prices on all of its 8.9” Fire HD Special Offer tablets.

Prices now start at $269 for the base 16GB Wi-Fi version, and although that particular model has sold for less before.

“In general each model is now at or near the lowest price we've seen – making it a good time to give the Fire HD a try.”

Photo: Sears.com

2. Winter items

It’s been a tough winter for many Americans. If you’re among those who were hit hard by one blizzard after another, you may be in the market for some new snow removal tools such as snowblowers, plows and shovels.

These items will see deep discounts this month but are likely to go fast. Also keep an eye out for deals on other cold-weather necessities, such as ice scrapers, snow tires and ice melt.

Check out the Craftsman 24" 179cc Dula-Storage Snowblower at Sears. It's a good size for most homeowners and is on sale for $150 off the retail price.

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Photo: REI

3. Spring clothing

Dealnews says the rule of thumb for clothing deals is to wait about two months after a new season of apparel hits stores before you can expect good discounts. April fits the bill.

Expect sales of 30% to 40% for mid-season promotions. Those deals go deeper in May, when you can get discounts of half off or more.

If you think every month lately seems to be a good month to buy an HDTV, you’re correct. Every month since Black Friday has seen reductions in prices for large HDTVs. They are at or near all-time lows.

“The price of 55-inch 3-D LCD HDTVs, for instance, hit all-time lows last month, with prices starting at $747, $3 under February's best price. Likewise, 55-inch (non-3-D) name-brand LCD HDTVs hit their second-lowest price of the past 12 months and deals started at $688. That’s a $51 difference from our all-time low during Black Friday. Lastly, 60-inch LCD HDTVs bottomed out at $698 in March, which is just $10 shy of the size category's best price on Black Friday,” said Dealnews.

Check out this awesome bundle from Samsung that includes a huge 3D HDTV, Blu-ray Disc player and glasses for 20% off.

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5. Laptops

Windows 8 laptops are not selling well. Microsoft is compensating by offering OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) discounts of up to 20% on licenses for Windows 8 (and Office).

Dealnews says, “Those discounts are generally for ultraportables, our deal archives show they're also affecting prices of mainstream 15" Ivy Bridge laptops. For instance, just last month we saw a 15.6" Acer Aspire with 6GB of RAM and a 750GB hard drive go for an unprecedented $299. That's the lowest price we've seen for any Ivy Bridge system. It’s also $41 under our February mention, which at the time was also an all-time low.”

They predict the $299 price will become the new norm as it makes its way to touchscreen Windows 8 laptops.

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BONUS: Free stuff

It doesn’t get much better than free. If you agree, April is a good month for you.